Books

This volume is designed to update, in the light of more recent composi- tional practices, the material typically found in texts on orchestration and instrumentation, and to provide a reference manual for clarinetists to use as an aid in solving many cf the performance problems encoun-tered in the newer literature for the instrument. Fundamental consider- ations such as intonation, finger dexterity, range, articulation, and dynamics are discussed in detail, as well as such special effects as microtonal fingerings, multiphonics, glissando, vibrato, smorzato, teeth on reed, slap tongue, mouthpiece alone, key slaps, hand pops, and circular breathing.

fectly proper emphasis on larger organic procedures; but occasionally the author's honesty of response to the music retires into a kind of helpless subjectivism which does alienate me; some sentences meander, and here and there occurs a lapse from rigour. For all that, Truscott's essay contains much that is truly serious, and illuminating, and his observations on English composers' 'second-subject problem' are particularly pertinent. In this regard he (quite correctly, in my view) restores the reputation of the long Gesangsperiod in the first movement of the Gothic, as organic to the total symphonic tonal plan; but it is odd that he then insists that the symphony's tonal centre is 'suddenly' wrested from D four movements later. The D flat tonality that so early (bar 30) intervenes in this first movement of the work is the submediant region of the symphony's ultimate E major; and the much more suggestive edge of C sharp minor cuts through at more than one structurally salient point in the developmental process of the movement.
Rapoport's essay breathes the air of a different planet altogether. It is the analytical half of the author's graduate thesis, which quite wisely he has not adapted ; it stands or falls as such. There is a wealth of Talmudic attention to organic detail: motives diminished to figuration, where the musical examples are quite visually enlightening; a structural 'model' of the first movement that endows it with a somewhat chemical appearance; exhaustive tabulations of expressive, tonal or instrumental features (the most formidable of these being of the eight occurrences of the trombone pedal-note figure in the scherzo); and an endeavour to make some schematic sense of Brian's setting of the Latin Te Deum text in the finale. I must state a personal interest here in that I don't like this movement at all (but I have a blind spot-or deaf spot-with Part Two of Mahler's Eighth also). I think Brian's treatment of the Latin here is often wilful, bordering on the irresponsible, and aurally I find much of the more labyrinthine choral writing to be so sonally opaque as to be meaningless. This is an unpopular view, but both these authors show some signs of having problems with this movement as well; and I don't find either of them convincing in the rationalizations that he gives. Rapoport speaks of 'exultant' hocket settings and the like. Truscott might be nearer the truth when he suggests that Brian's compulsion, in this often quite carnival setting of the hymn, was destructive. I understand this to mean some kind of moral rage, as in the case of the Rondo Burleske of Mahler's Ninth. Whatever the truth, I do not know how such an extended and elaborate creative act as this finale must have involved could be governed entirely by an unconscious impulse, however Satanic. High accuracy of creative execution can betoken more conscious uncertainties too. I experience often in this second part of the Gothic a sense that the composer himself is not convinced of the rightness of everything that he is doing.
For all this, these are essays by two musicians of contrasted culture and generation, both of whom deeply love the work, and of whom each has his own order of personal insight into it, which here he generously shares with us. The Gothic is a symphony of huge endeavour and real existential presence. The adagio alone, with its massive ceremonial five-four tread and grim bitonally dividing and rejoining flux, must be one of the great symphonic utterances of all time. Now that the work's somewhat four-minute-mile reputation as unperformable is justly laid to rest, perhaps we can begin to take it seriously, and think about it morally, as a major fact of musical life. This book is, at its best, a powerful contribution to that process.

DONEMUS AMSTERDAM
We are pleased to announce that as from July of this year we are the appointed sole agent for the Donemus catalogue of contemporary Dutch music and records. Among the composers featured in the catalogue you will find scores and recordings to works by:

Louis Andriessen Henk Badings Rudolf Escher Otto Ketting Ton de Leeuw Theo Loevendie Enrique Raxach Peter Schat
Please write for the general music catalogue and that featuring music on records entitled "Composer's Voice".

Stevie's Ferry to Hoy (1977)
Three moderately easy pieces for Piano Solo 40p

Philip Rehfeldt
This volume is designed to update, in the light of more recent compositional practices, the material typically found in texts on orchestration and instrumentation, and to provide a reference manual for clarinetists to use as an aid in solving many cf the performance problems encountered in the newer literature for the instrument. Fundamental considerations such as intonation, finger dexterity, range, articulation, and dynamics are discussed in detail, as well as such special effects as microtonal fingerings, multiphonics, glissando, vibrato, smorzato, teeth on reed, slap tongue, mouthpiece alone, key slaps, hand pops, and circular breathing. 144 pages £10-50

Bertram Turetzky
Of value to composers and bassists alike this volume is more than a book about the contrabass. It is also an introduction to string playing at a time in the history of Western music when timbre has finally ascended to its rightful role among musical parameters. It articulates the real musical image and potential of the contrabass, and introduces new concepts, aesthetics, and techniques. 200 pages £7-25 The Avant-Garde Flute

Thomas HoweII
This guide to modern flute techniques is designed to serve both the composer who desires specific knowledge of the flute's possibliities and the flutist who wishes to master the special effects called for in many contemporary compositions. The entire range of possibilities lying between classical flute technique and the physical limitation of the instrument is treated in detail. 300 pages £8-25 UniVERIITV OP CflUfORMA PRttl